We’ve had groups from the Yukon Territory; the Northwest Territories; Nunavut;  and even from Greenland. This week we had a group of young travelers from Yakutat, Alaska.

Yakutat, is an Alaskan coastal town whose residents are engaged (mostly) in the fishing industry. This sparsely inhabited coastal strip of land is (seemingly rather unlikely) the third largest town in the world by area.

The 9,500 square mile “townsite” is about three times the size of the state of Rhode Island. The name of the area “Yakutat” is of Tlingit origin – Yaakwdáat (“The place where canoes rest”). So Yakutat City, with just around 4000 souls is actually the largest city in America (12th worldwide) by area.

The young group of about 25 “Yakutatians” have visited Toronto’s CN Tower, museums and shopping malls (covering similar attractions as our previous group fron Nunavut earlier this year).

This group wasted no time. They were up with the sun; then out and about exploring all day. They proved so elusive that we were unable to connect with them to get a group photograph.

All that is left to say is this young group was a pleasure for us to host and we look forward to future visits from groups from Yakutat.

From the serene and beautiful Yakutat Bay….

…to the bright lights of the big city.

This massive growth is particularly evident in the downtown core of the city where our hostel is located. The addition of so many new high-rise structures threatens to increase the “concrete jungle” feel of our city.

The city has wisely enacted a piece of legislation requiring all future high-rise construction projects to be built with “green” rooftops.

They don’t mean green as in coloured green or painted green; but, living green rooftops as in “plants, grass, flowers and trees”.

Toronto’s new legislation requires all residential, commercial and institutional buildings over 2,000 square meters to have between 20 and 60 percent living roofs. This is the first city in North America requiring such a mandate (following the leads of Switzerland and Tokyo).

Chicago actually led the way more than a decade ago (in 2000) when it built a massive (38,800 sq. ft.) “roof garden” on a new 12 story building. The benefits to this type of construction have proven to be far greater than mere ascetics.

The building saves over $5000 on annual utility bills; a 34% reduction in heat-loss in winter; and a massive 84% reduction in heat gain in summer.

Today, Chicago has over 7 million sq. ft. of green rooftops and New York City has followed suit beginning with the Con Edison Learning Center in Queens.

Lower utility bills aren’t the only benefit of planting a living roof. It cools down the city; creates cleaner air and water; provides a peaceful oasis for people, birds and insects in an otherwise polluted, concrete and asphalt-covered environment.

Toronto has been a world leader in big city cleanliness, safety and muli-culturalism. Now we’ve joined the “green revolution” with a vengence!

Look out world! HERE WE COME!

These two neighbourhoods are in close proximity to our Toronto Hostel and provides backpackers with inexpensive areas to purchase groceries, clothing, souveniers etc.

But one enormously popular (among local residents) market remains largely undiscovered by many hostel residents.

In past blog entries, we described the old market building (established circa 1803) as one of the top 20 markets in the world. It seems we were a bit off the mark with that claim.

A recent issue of the venerable travel magazine National Geographic has rated the world’s best markets. Our very own contender for inclusion, did indeed make the list!

Toronto’s own St. Lawrence Market sits solidly in FIRST PLACE on the list of the world’s best markets!

From our hostel, it is a pleasant hike of about 20 minutes east along front street to a heritage structure (South Market Building) rebuilt circa 1845 after it was destroyed by a fire. There are over 190 vendors operating inside the building selling meats, fish, produce and spices.

Toronto’s two popular “market” areas are very disimilar in character.

The eclectic Kensington Market is a multi-cultural (and somewhat chaotic) assemblage of fruit, fish, cheese, bread vendors as well as used item sellers and retro-clothing shops.  In short, there is everything to be purchased here from Cantelopes to Kiwi Fruit; from Specialty Coffee to Cannibis Paraphenalia.

St. Lawrence Market (our personal favourite) is merely a spectacular market for (very) fresh meat and vegetables and some first rate specialty fast-food vendors.

If you check out this market, we highly-recommend a quick lunch of Pemeal Bacon on a Kaiser Roll – a delicious Canadian fast-food specialty!

St. Lawrence Market’s website is:

http://www.stlawrencemarket.com/

Kensington Market’s Website is:

http://www.kensington-market.ca/Default.asp?id=1&l=1

Baldwin Street in Kensington Market .

Kensington Ave., in Kensington Market.

The historic St. Lawrence Market (Named as the “World’s Best Market” by National Geographic Magazine).

Retro-clothing shop in Kensington Market

Among the more than 190 quality food vendors at the St. Lawrence Market.

Don’t believe us? Then try these Nfld., place names:

- Bacon Cove; Blow Me Down; Come By Chance; Goobies; Heart’s Content (or Delight or Desire); Little Seldom; River of Ponds; Pothead and the ever weird, unfortunate town named, “Dildo”.

CBTG’s (pronounced “CEEBEETEEGEE’S”). Is a popular St. John’s watering hole whose name is (almost) an unpronouncable acronym.

It stands for, The Closest Bar To Gulliver’s (Taxi). Which presumably allows you easy access a cab to help you stumble home safely after a night out.

Ian Newton, who owns and operates Ceebeeteegee’s, comes to the Canadiana every year to catch the North by Northeast Music Festival or Canadian Music Week. He’s here again for the 2012 edition of CMW. It is yet another scouting trip to find possible bands for his club.

So when you visit Newfoundland, drop into “CBTG’s” – The Closest Bar To Gulliver’s (Taxi Service) located at 338A Water Street, St, John’s. (Tell them that the Canadiana Backpacker’s Inn sent you!)

CBTG’s (top two floors above Subway). Entrance via hidden/raised patio around the corner.

See? We weren’t kidding about the strange place names!

We are situated in the heart of the “Entertainment District of Toronto”. Go out of our front door, look to your right…and voila! The CN Tower!

That is about to change. (And very soon too!)

WE are not going anywhere. The CN TOWER is not going anywhere. But it is soon to dissappear from our view!

Our city is in the midst of an unprecendented building boom.

As we write this, Toronto currently has 148 high rise condos and skyscrapers under construction. By comparison #2 (New York City) has 59; and #3 (Chicago) 22!

You can stand in a single spot on the street a block from the hostel and count dozens (literally) of construction crane towers peircing the sky. (And this does not factor in the many buildings that are still in the excavation stages of development).

At last count, there were 14  high rises (40 story plus) planned or underway on our block or within two blocks of our hostel’s front door!

There is a sliver of land wedged between Toronto’s elevated expressway and an off-ramp that pumps traffic into downtown. This has become the epicenter of Toronto’s construction boom. In this area, towers between 40 stories and 75 stories have or are being built are so numerous, that it defies our efforts to count them.

The Canadiana Backpackers Inn is comprised of 10 attached, Victoirian Era, 3 story residences (circa 1889) on a quiet street. And we are located in the centre of this constrction boom! (This is NOT hyperbole! It is a dead-bang fact!)

A tower at the foot of our street (a part of the one-full block epanse of the Toronto Film Festival Development) is rising at the rate of two floors a week! By month’s end, our once clear view of the landmark CN Tower (three blocks away) will be obliterated.

To all of our old Canadiana past guests and friends, come on back and see the areas you may no longer recognize! It is radical change indeed; but, just it is the price of progress.

And it is actually kind of nice in a very exciting way!

We are losing the hostel’s dramatic view of the CN Tower a mere three blocks away!

A “normal” Canadian winter is usually defined as bitterly cold and white with snow. (That description doesn’t even begin to address the stinging sleet, messy slush and damaging hail etc., that often accompanies winter’s wrath.)

Canadians often describe the month of March as; “coming in as a lion” - a month when winter gives us a savage reminder of her savage power to control how we must live.

At a time of year when we ususally experience temperatures hovering around the freezing mark, mid-March has seen insanely high temperatures double-digits above freezing.

This follows a winter devoid of any signifigant, lasting snowfall and with a mean temperature the highest seen since the beginning of accurate record keeping six-and-a-half decades ago.

In a country defined by winter, ski-resorts in Ontario have been crippled; snow mobile enthusiasts outdoor activities ruined; winter carnivals less wintery; skating rinks shut down early; and outdoor swimming pools are being prepared months sooner in anticipation of possible earlier openings.

In short, it’s crazy! Although many of our visiting backpackers (skiiers, snowboarders etc.) have been somewhat disappointed, long-suffering Canadians are  (in the spite of ther global threat) inwardly elated.

So to the youth in other countries who enjoy the “status quo” regarding the climate in their home countries you’d better start addressing the issue of Global Warming!

We’ve had first hand eperience here in Toronto. That (“…the times, they are a-changin…!”)

Our usual winter

This winter

Obviously pool is a very popular game with young people in pubs. Here at the Canadiana, we have installed a regulation sized pool table which is almost identical to the one’s you will find in drinking establishments. The only difference, is ours does not have a coin slot. The games are free.

People who operate hostels are well-aware that the majority of young backpackers are extremely “budget conscious” and that bars, all too often, constitute the biggest single drain on many young backpacker’s resources.

With our own table and patio, our guests can enjoy a “pub night” out with free pool for the cost of a six pack of beer! And since the patio is “outdoors”, you may smoke during the game (if you’ve still not managed to give them up!)

It’s just another way our Toronto Backpackers Inn helps backpacker’s save a little of their money to continue traveling.

There is currently a conference here in Toronto for people who compile satistics on the rapidly changing demographics of Canada. As population changes with the influx of different ethnicities, new strategies must be employed to fit a new and rapidly changing social paradigm.

It requires those with a strong academic to compile accurate and pertainent statistics to enable the government to formulate plans and policies to ensure a smoothly running multi-cultural country.

I don’t think it is unfair to say that many (if not, most) bureaucrats working for the government, tend to be rather profligate when attending professional seminars and conferences. After all, it’s your money they are spending.

But here in our hostel, we have noted that there are notable exceptions. The exceptions are almost always government employed academics.

The conference referred to above took place at the exclusive Harbour Castle Hotel right on the Toronto waterfront. Conference attendees got a “special rate” of a little less than $200 per night. Not too bad for such a upscale hotel.

Josh, is a doctoral candidate (Geography) working for the Provincial Government of British Columbia. His job (among other things) is to track the geographical distribution of different ethnicities presumably to aid in allocating initiatives and funds in various areas. So he was here on the taxpayer’s dime and the total cost of his conference was budgeted for around $1600 of public funds.

We see a lot of professionals attending conferences since Toronto is the conference centre of Canada. Yet, the individuals who opt to stay at our hostel (instead of an expensive 4star luxury hotel) are employees  with strong academic backgrounds.

Why? We have no idea really.

But some have speculated, that after years spent as a struggling student, academics know the value of money and are loathe to spend it wastefully. So many of them elect to stay in our hostel.

When we ask some of them why they choose to stay with us the answer (almost uniformly) is the friendly, convivial and unpretentious  atmosphere of hostels.

So if you are a senior bureaucrat booking accomodations for staff members, keep in mind that we are centrally located in the downtown core of Toronto and have clean, comfortable private rooms at less than 1/3 the price of a downtown hotel.

Hostels (such as ours) merely provide less-expensive lodging for budget minded travelers – of all ages. In a city like Toronto, you would be hard pressed to find a place to stay “downtown” (at least in a safe, decent part of downtown) for less than $150 or up to $300 (and more) a night on average.

In the early days of hostels (when there were precious few of them), many of them did indeed restrict admittance to a younger age demographic only.  That is really a thing of the past. Try as we might, we can’t think of any of the hostels in Canada that restrict entry based on age. (The only exceptions are unaccompanied minors or some “party hostels” deemed “unsuitable for children”.)

“Young Ron” is a retired Canadian electrician who has retired to the mountains near Penticton, BC and often finds himself in Toronto on personal business. Ron is active and healthy in his late seventies. He always opts to stay with us.

We have hosted (with great pleasure) “backpackers” from 8 months old to the mid-eighties. So if you want clean, quality, lower cost accomodation, do not Google Search “Youth Hostels in Toronto”; simply restrict your query to “Hostels in Toronto”.

THEN BOOK THE FIRST HOSTEL YOU FIND LISTED! (THAT WILL BE US!)

Way back in 2005, we had an Aussie staff member (Shane King) who was paid a visit by his younger brother Brett who was a professional inline skater.

Brett stayed for about 10 days but, before leaving, he contributed to this blog and gave us a sketch of his time here at the hostel. It was a generous piece too as he wrote about how staying at the Canadiana hostel in Toronto was a positive and life-altering experience.

You can read it here:

http://www.canadianalodging.com/blog/2007/04/08/to-the-canadiana-staff/

Unannounced, Brett showed up again at the hostel in 2009 and surprised everyone. He was on his way to France determined to learn the language. He is now fluently francophone.

We were in the main building two days ago and ran straight into Brett again! He’s back. Unannounced again! (His visit was not entirely unexpected. A staff member was tracking his movements on Facebook and noted his flight from Singapore to Vancouver. So dropping in on old friends in Toronto seemed a logical step).

It’s always good when old hostel friends return. Most of them call or write ahead signaling their intentions. Not Brett. We think he likes seeing the surprise on familiar faces when he shows up!

Nonetheless, it’s always good to see Brett again. it was a real surprise; but, a very pleasant one, indeed. He’s on his way to France again but plans to live and work in Canada for a time before moving on.